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Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Cinnamon Carrot Bread

For the past few days, we've been battling a bit of illness over here. The boy has had one of those typical childhood colds, where he seems completely unaffected one minute, and nearly comatose the next. Now I'm feeling a little under the weather, as can be expected when woken up a few mornings in a row by a kid coughing god knows what into your face.

I took this as an opportunity to bake some healthier items we could both take to school or snack on. I never quite know when to use "rustic" to describe baking (baked on a farm? in a wooden oven? what counts, people?), but I think I'm willing to throw it out in this post. So we'll call this a rustic, healthy carrot bread. The recipe comes from a centuries old cookbook my mom has-- one of those from the 70s or whenever there was a big craze about healthy foods you could have ready on the table to help reduce your hard-working husband's risk of heart disease.

In spite of its datedness, it was good. Really good. I was half expecting it to be dry and, quite frankly gross, but it was moist, light, and still a bit sweet with a hint of spice. It wasn't cake-like at all, which I can find to be a problem with carrot loaves. It also baked up incredibly easy, and was very simple to throw together. (I'm also happy to report there were no finger-slicing incidents when grating the carrots). The boy ate 4 slices when he came home from school, and today there's only a small portion left. He actually loved it so much, he's asked me to bake it for his class next week for his birthday! I suspect these would also make great muffins-- something I'll have to try very shortly.

Cinnamon Carrot Bread

1 cup raisins

3/4 cup AP flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp each baking soda and baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

3 tbsp vegetable oil

3/4 cup low fat yogurt (who am I kidding -- I used full fat)

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup finely shredded carrot (be careful!)

Topping:

1 tbsp rolled oats

1 tbsp oat bran

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Pour boiling water over raisins and let stand for 5 minutes, then drain thoroughly.